Balaam

This blog looks at the story of Balaam given recent changes in our understanding of OT divine name references. Also, this week, has a flurry of technical updates to our apps. Then watch dates and a headline review.

Divine Name

Last week's blog went through our discovery process related to the name Joshua as used in the Old Testament. I highlighted the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den. In that story we learn that Joshua is not a god nor is he a man.

Texts as passed by history have been tampered. So this point made in Daniel is a relatively rare contradiction against most other references to god in the OT.

References to Joshua appear to have first been scrubbed by Solomon, who would have replaced Joshua with Yahweh. Many of those Yahweh references appear to have been moderated and/or scrubbed again by Ezra.

There seems to have been a fight between editors over which god they wanted to win. So unpacking and fixing the text is not easy. It is a layered problem.

Ryan is making a pass across the OT text to make a guess as to the likely original inspired divine names. He is following screen shots from Tabernacles. The audit work will make a second pass across this same problem, probably later this year.

What is emerging from this study is a version of the OT that is similar to the feel of the NT. Joshua becomes the agent and driving force for most of the events across that early part of the canon.

Salvation Stories

We also start to find the equivalent of salvation stories, like we see in the NT. Ultimately the entire book appears to be about the process of coming to faith in Joshua. This happens initially with famous families, especially around Abraham. Then it begins to increase in numbers.

The story of Balaam is a particularly interesting early example. The reason this story is interesting is because he is outside of the family of Jacob. So the story of Balaam shows off a missionary aspect to the OT that is lost under the hand of the editors.

Balaam

The link here is to the start of the story of Balaam in the TT. Note this is an unstable link. Readers of this blog in the future may find this link does not work. The story placements are not yet finished in the TT. This is why I don't normally link into the TT app itself. For future readers, use the TT search function for the term "Balaam."

The context of this story is that the heirs of Jacob are now assembling on the eastern shore of the Jordan river. This is in preparation for crossing the Jordan into the land promised to Abraham. Within the historical narrative of the text, this is the time of "peak faith."

Joshua is interacting with and geographically moving the largest numbers of believers found anywhere else in the text. Moving this same general community to Rome at the Assyrian Deportation probably involves higher numbers. But those numbers are only a guess. Rome was not settled by a faith community as we see here.

The census counts from that era suggests over 600,000 male heads of households. So a general population pushing perhaps 2,000,000. Many of these people will become "walk offs." It is possible the Revelation count of 144,000 applies to this same generation.

This is the first major group who will return to Eden. Before this point there has only been a few who left earth alive. We don't know numbers for New Testament believers, but if there is a larger number, then only the New Testament would match this time.

Balaam

So within this context we find the story of Balaam. Balaam is an "interpreter of dreams." This profession is probably something like the "Wizard of Oz" in the 1936 version of the movie by the same name. Balaam has a fee to put on a show where he curses the enemies of kings. His actual ability is probably mostly in his theatrical abilities. He puts on a good show.

In this particular case, Balak, king of the Moabites, wants Balaam to curse the heirs of Jacob. He sends for Balaam. Eventually Balaam is going to put on his normal performance. He will do this 3 times.

In those 3 times we watch as Balaam has an encounter with an angel of Joshua as well as several prophetic words from Joshua. Note we have started using "angel" in the TT text again. This term implies a heavenly messenger. Use of the term suggests we are seeing a cameo of some earlier walk-off. At this point in history there are not very many choices. Enoch, Noah and then Abraham and his close family members are the only known possibilities.

By the 3rd time Balaam puts on his show, he gives up the theater and just speaks prophetically about the future of many of those people. His 3rd round is showing us when Balaam has come to faith.

Note that getting attention from an angel is usually because the person being visited has come to the point where they are ready for a faith walk. Angels don't usually spend time with anyone who does not matter. They want to include Balaam as part of that generation's harvest of earth.

Balaam's Use of Terms

At the start of this story Balaam is likely using the generic term "god." Ryan is making a well educated guess as to what the audit will likely show. Remember, by definition, god is an "imaginary shepherd." This term implies no actual agency. Perhaps the only spiritual beings outside of Joshua's normal cohort are the souls of dead people. We would call them ghosts. The text might call ghosts "spirits" or "demons." None of those terms are active in this story.

The first night out, Joshua speaks to Balaam and warns him not to curse the people who are blessed. This is an example of a very common pattern. Joshua speaks to someone even though that person does not know Joshua. This is a key point. Joshua reveals himself to people who do not know him. Those people must figure out who is speaking. Balaam is a textbook example. Balaam will still use the term "god" even after Joshua has spoken the first time.

Part of the process of coming to faith is to come into agreement with the things Joshua is doing in the world. Balaam starts out just putting on a show for the king who has hired him. This is the context used to correct Balaam's understanding of what is going on around him.

By coming into agreement with what Joshua is doing, Balaam is coming to faith.

Balaam's Donkey

Ryan has restored into the TT the story of Balaam's donkey. There are no particular filter rules that would automatically rule out this story. A talking donkey, though strange, does not fail by any known filter rule. Nowhere does the text say animals cannot talk. Anyone who has had even a pet cat knows that animals understand their world and can communicate.

In this story we see an angel of Joshua interacting with Balaam. First via the donkey, and then directly and in person.

In a normal read of this story, the main lesson appears to be that curses have power, and the angel is stopping the curses. An alternative here is that Balaam is ready to come to faith in Joshua. So the angel of Joshua is engaging Balaam for faith based reasons.

Evidence for this latter understanding is that Balaam is the likely witness to the story itself. He is likely going to join the community of Jacob. This is how his story is added to the canon of scripture. He is the only actual witness. Balaam is thus likely to become a walk-off, just like so many others in that generation.

So what we are reading in the story of Balaam's donkey is the salvation story for Balaam himself. This is his testimony. His behavior towards Balak and his prophetic words over the heirs of Jacob change dramatically after Balaam's conversion. Paul's encounter with Joshua on the road to Damascus is similarly structured.

After the encounter with the angel of Joshua, Balaam likely starts using the correct term, Joshua. He is no longer using a generic term like god.

Balaam still puts on his usual show, wanting 7 altars and related sacrifices. This is his second performance and he is still operating under the patterns of his old practice.

This is an example of the route to faith. Many people seem to go through this. There is a focus on the rituals learned before faith. Those rituals eventually drop. All that remains after that process is just a walk with Joshua.

You can see this in the Balaam story where he is taken to mount Peor. This is the final time he is called to curse. At this point he has no need for a ritual. Why? Because ritual has no power.

This final time is when Balaam knows this people is blessed. All he can speak is a blessing. Balaam has come into agreement with Joshua's plan for that generation.

Purpose of Editors

The process of coming into agreement with Joshua's general plans is important. It is closely tied to the process of coming to faith.

When we understand this problem, we can then see why editing the text was such an important target for those who are against Joshua and his ways in the world.

Even back in the Garden of Eden, the question posed was "What did Joshua really say?"

So by editing the text, the basic frame for coming to faith was broken. With edited text, it is not strictly possible to come to a "walk off" level of faith. Even watching, and trying to understand, modern headlines surrounding Israel is caught up in the process of editing the text.

Is Joshua going to set up a world capital there? Or is he going to use a right of revenge to avenge the crucifixion? Answering this depends on what tampering was done to the text. There is no good way to pick sides, so no good way to achieve walk off faith.

Balaam is just a first example. There are many other now interesting stories in the OT material. We will return to more in future blogs.

Diary Work

In previous blogs I explained how the Story Grid app got updates to the aside library in our build environment. That work spilled over in to my personal diary app. By the time we were at the campground for Tabernacles I was seeing bugs in my diary related to those changes.

Once we were back home, and rested, I realized I needed to just go fix the diary. We are trying to operate under a "quick iteration" strategy we learned from Elon Musk. I really needed to just stop other work and fundamentally fix my diary. So, I set out to fix everything that bugs me with my current diary keeping system.

File Formats

I have been keeping an electronic, written, diary for about 24 years. This week was the first time I needed to fundamentally change file formats. This is tricky because there are now 4,457 different diary entries.

Those files cover many things. Like any normal diary, I keep records of travel and dreams. But I also include both personal and group lots. This is my main tool for understanding how Joshua interacts prophetically with people.

In surveying those files, I found there are 22,906 cited individual lots entries. We have been doing lots for a long time, and in that process we have learned a lot. (Philologists have puny humor.)

Some of this file format conversion was done by code. Some was done by use of "regex" tools in a text editor. Ryan is proficient with advanced regex tools because of his handling of Bible texts. He helped with some of this conversion.

Code Into the Diary

This update also meant shifting code around. There is a git repo for diary entries and another for the app. The diary entries repo never had running code. Now that project has some build time code.

This new code cleanly generates future watch dates and it validates things like Bible cites. For big sets of files like this, having code check files for correctness is nice. But adding such checks usually creates a long list of items that need to be corrected. 24 years without validation meant there was a mighty list of corrections what were needed across many entries.

Some issues were caused by how we used Book Order Bibles for lots in the early years. Those did not have normal Bible cites. In the early years, we also did not know what really mattered for future reference, so diary entries that involved lots were more complex than currently. All of those strange lots related Bible cites were corrected this week into standard cite formats.

Calculated Watch Dates

I have recently started using special markup to call out future watch dates. I originally did this calculation by hand. That markup needed code to make it run. This week I rewrote that personal watch date calculation code because I now understand the problem better. By changing the main file formats, the new code has much less file format conversion. Generated files are now built using templates, which is much easier.

What I am learning through this work is that Joshua speaks through personal lots about future dates that will be interesting. Most commonly, those future personal watch dates mark the topics that will show up in lots on those future dates. This is profound. Joshua actively cares about personal soul development. The story of Balaam becomes a common pattern. Joshua interacts with us in stages across our life. If you let him, he will speak to you about what he is doing with you, and what he will do with you. He has a plan.

Personal travel lots, say lots at the beach, will tend to fulfill with more personal travel lots, say lots at a campground. Joshua orders our steps. He knows our future schedule. He is willing and able to reveal that schedule. All it takes is the right tooling to see it.

Archive Data Problems

Diary data is considered "archival." This means that the data in a diary is valid for many years. In my case, 24 years already. I cannot see how this could be done as a service. The life expectancy of all businesses is under 7 years on average. So this work is not something I would currently see as something I could make available to others, at least not to anyone not able to maintain the system themselves.

More Tech Updates

As I was working on the code that calculates future watch dates I found myself using the same file name patterns as we use across our apps. Anyone who has built websites knows the use of index.html files for pages in those sites. We also use article.html for articles in web apps.

The diary's common file name was switched from article.html to aside.html because diary entries are now displayed as asides. For the diary itself this was a simple conversion from article to aside. But, this triggered a round of work in our basic libraries to make asides into a more formal, first class, element.

So this week we went through and revised all of our apps that use asides of various types. All of them now use aside.html as the basic file name whenever an aside is being used. This cleans up a considerable number of places where aside file names were irregular in our apps and code.

Besides the Story Grid stories, we are now ready for much more use of asides across our apps. The lexicon in the Paleo Bible app will soon be running with asides as well.

Style System Updates

This week Ryan has also gone through a scrub on the style sheet system used across our apps. This is something he wanted to do for some time. It made much sense to combine this with the changes made to asides.

Most apps in our family of apps have been updated this week with these changes. Please use the contact form to report any bugs that might have been introduced this week. We do not intend to introduce bugs, but bugs happen.

Names Lexicon

I have finally been able to resume lexicon work. I remain focused on the names annex to the lexicon for the Paleo Bible. I am in a round that is identifying the roots and prefixes for all the names used across the manuscript.

As part of this work I am concerned about keeping the files clean of copyright infringement. So part of this work is being done outside of the Paleo Bible app itself. This allows some scaffolding code for building the lexicon that uses otherwise copyrighted names.

There is a step coming up soon, probably next week, where the current work will get injected into the main Paleo Bible project. That step will only include material that I have actually created, so typed, myself. The scaffolding that ties back to other, copyrighted, text will be left behind.

For the purposes of English, at this round, I have invented a notation that explains how to pronounce paleo names given paleo spelling. But, it minds the conventional syllables found in English language names.

This undoes the shibboleths created across history and it compensates for irregularly added vowels. The net effect of this notation is to show the likely inspired pronunciation for all names found in the text.

That notation is not absolutely fixed, and will be updated as names go through audit.

By the time this blog goes out on Friday afternoon, I should mostly be done with that work across all known names. This probably hits the live Paleo Bible app by next week. We'll see.

Major Events This Week

There have been 2 areas of interest in headlines this week. The first involves oil market pricing. The second involves trouble with the US Federal bond market. Both of these appear to be impacts of Trump's failed war against Iran that started February 28, 2026. If we have correctly identified Iran, that country should ultimately win against the west. But it should take a few more years to play out.

Iran's current strategy, of keeping Hormuz mostly closed, is asymmetric warfare against the funding engine of western hegemony. That strategy takes time, but it is working, as headlines this week indicate.

Oil

For several months there has been pretty regular "2:00 AM" slams in the oil futures market that have been holding down the price of oil. Trump's own rhetoric against Iran was timed for weekends when markets were closed. It was clear the US Federal Government was managing oil markets to minimize the natural price effects of Trump's war with Iran.

The problem with manipulating down the price of oil is that it does not shed demand. So those areas of the economy where oil is valuable and important do not get the now limited oil instead of areas in the economy where oil is discretionary.

This is a fancy way of saying that the US Government is artificially creating an oil shock. The question has been when does that hit? Early estimates were suggesting this would start this past July. Those early estimates did not properly cope with government intervention.

What became apparent this week is that the market based price discovery has naturally shifted to the markets for refined product. "Crack Spread" is a measure of this. This past week, this number reached an all time record high of $102 per barrel for diesel.

So there really has been a price based demand shedding process. But that process has not been in the prices paid to producing countries, but instead to refiners.

This is curious because it changes who gets the profits from scarce oil. Instead of profits to the drillers, so the GCC countries, this shifts profits to domestic refiners.

The US Federal Government appears adept at shifting revenue to itself and to certain tax paying domestic parties. At the same time, this is shedding demand, which is good. It is shifting crisis level shortages into this coming fall.

If Iran can keep Hormuz closed, the stored reserves in the western world will eventually be used up. Though there is a race to see if the west can spin up other sources of supply. Venezuelan oil is said to now be flowing to the USA. There have also been reports of Trump affiliated drillers exploring in Greenland. The race is on to replace Hormuz if that is at all physically possible. The prophetic stories over Iran suggest this is only marginal and will not ultimately matter.

At some point western economies should suffer more severely than has been seen so far. NATO damage to Russia has caused Russia to stop exporting diesel. Europe is expecting worse trouble than North America.

Weaker economies, like Japan, will have more trouble. Oil shocks will be more severe in weak economies or where oil is a pricey import.

US Treasuries

This week the total US Government outstanding debt crossed the $40T mark. That number is mostly symbolic. But, the rate of increase is increasing. By the end of 2026 it will probably pass $41T and may pass $42T. This number looks to be starting to turn a knee. It will increase faster and faster each month until the USD is worthless.

This much debt is causing trouble in the bond markets. The US Treasury failed to sell long dated bonds. So instead the US Treasury is selling short term debt in order to refinance long term debt.

This is a bet that pays off should interest rates fall in the future. Interest rates are in part a measure of confidence in the issuing government. Loosing a war against Iran is a way for the US government to loose confidence. The bet being played now with short term bonds is likely to fail.

Trump is now basically on a continuous campaign trail in order to boost confidence in the government itself. His personal brand has failed. So only a change in the office might restore faith in the government.

Japan

The Japanese government holds $4T in US government bonds. This is about 1/10th of the outstanding issuance. Many others have borrowed cheap Japanese currency in order to buy US Treasuries. So trouble with Japan's government finances and currency is a big risk to USA hegemony around the world.

Japan's key role in financing the US government appears to be the result of the Japanese loss of World War II. China was also used for this purpose. Nixon's trip to China was in part to setup China as a buyer of US Treasuries. But China has a stronger economy and has shed treasuries as a component of their central bank assets. This leaves Japan standing alone.

Japan has been the subject of financial related prophetic words for decades. The key idea is that collapse of US economy will be foreshadowed by a collapse of the Japanese currency. That collapse has been underway for a few months. Intervention to prevent collapse was attempted again about 2 weeks ago. It worked for about 2 weeks.

We seem to be on the leading edge of the fulfillment for those prophetic words. Japan remains in play through early October, 2026, because of the current king's reign. Let me explain.

Watch: Uzziah/Azariah

We are currently in the replay of the reign of Uzziah, also known as Azariah. This began on 2026-08-12. It runs through 2026-10-02.

At some point during his reign, this particular king was struck with leprosy and had to live in a house in seclusion until the day of his death.

This leprosy is known as the plague of boils from the Plagues series. In that plagues story, something like ashes from a furnace are cast into the air. They become fine dust which breaks out as boils.

Note that the type of ashes that break out as boils are the ashes from nuclear fires. This happened in Japan at the end of World War II. Current financial troubles in Japan that are transmitting into the US Bond market may be the main headline for this king's reign. This would then become the headline match for this plague. A financial fulfillment would be better than the actual use of nuclear weapons.

Real Nukes?

But, also worthy of note, is a nuclear weapons headline. On 2026-08-17, so 5 days into this prophetic king's reign, Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X that there had been discussions, apparently in the previous week, in the White House, about using nuclear weapons against Iran.

So her X post is pushing actual discussions about nuclear weapons back to the start of the reign of Azariah. This would be the missing headline for that date.

Should Trump follow through on this, we might expect such weapons to be used before the end of this king's reign on 2026-10-02. Should he use such weapons, the prophetic story suggests Trump might not ever be able to go out in public again. Best case, he would be forever booed off any public stage.

When Ryan and I ran the plagues against the kings, we had a secondary date of 2026-09-22, which provides an alternative date about 10 days before the end of this reign.

Northern King

There is a note in my records that Jehoahaz, a northern king, will start a replay in this time. The math for this date lands on 2026-08-26. I was not tracking northern king dates in July of 2002 when this would have replayed previously. So unclear if this should trigger a headline or not.

So we have a speculative watch date for the Wednesday after this blog goes out.

Peeking ahead, the Assyrian Deportation replays 2026-11-09. This is where we would look for the most severe headlines later this year.

Headline Review

The following caught my attention this week.

Meeting In Egypt

This link is dated to Aug. 17, 2026. Kushner was visiting Netanyahu in Egypt for a meeting with Hamas. Netanyahu is said to have founded Hamas. Now he is dismantling it as part of the conquest of Gaza. Trump's handler was in the room for this meeting.

Trump On Nuking Iran

This link is to the original X post that leaks discussions where Trump wants to nuke Iran.

$40T Graphic

This link has a nice graphic of outstanding treasuries passing the $40T mark. You can see the shape of the curve bending up. This curve's shape is the most important part of this headline.

Economic War With Iran

This post has a copy of Trump's social media post where he says he is shifting to economic war with Iran. In decades past, the USD was the world's reserve currency. No more. So this war will be hard to fight with an ever weakening hand.

Economy Collapsing

A link to a post on X with a short summary of the trouble that the US Treasury is facing. Current actions are setting the stage for much worse later.

Japan Currency Bailout

This link is to a Patrick Boyle Youtube video with details on the recent Japanese currency bailout.

Catholic Banking History

Glenn Diesen had professor Hudson on as a guest to discuss financial issues related to the wars. Hudson started by surveying the content from an upcoming book on the early history of European central banking.

This is a bombshell video because it ties the banking cartel of Europe to the history of the Catholic Church. This level of detail and how it stretches way back across history was very much news to me.

This explains why western Christianity is so tied to Zionism. Zionists were bankrolling the Catholic Church as well as nearly every government in Europe. This went on for most of the history of the Catholic Church after the split from Orthodoxy.

Jerome's switch of the Latin OT to Hebrew can now be seen in the context of the Jews taking over western Christianity. This is much more circumstantial evidence that the manuscript change behind the western edition of the OT was deliberate.

Hudson's upcoming book should be interesting.

Israelism instead of Christianity

The link here is to another recent article on this same point. This one by Ron Unz. He contrasts how Russia is Christian while the USA is not.

This is odd, since only 85 percent of Russians are of Christian heritage while 95 percent of Americans are of Christian heritage. Again, this is the result of Jewish forces working against the natural Christian culture.

Bond Intervention

The link here is to more background information on US intervention in the bond market. This is a Monetary Matters Network video on Youtube. These young guys don't get evil. But, they do get the narrowing window for US Treasury intervention. They also see gold eventually regaining its rightful place as a reserve asset.

More Later,

Phil